Resurrection
by Rexcaliburr
Summary: Gray Mann wants a lot of things, including magic. The ability to self-heal and create fire from his hands is much too appealing to give up the chance, and sends his personal assistant, half malfunctioning Sniperbot Makina to capture the two mercenaries who have these skills. Makina realizes how close he is to finding freedom, he requests the help of Gray's two captives to escape.
1. Chapter 1

_log_1_  
_I've been working for Gray Mann for almost two years now. Most others get trashed in six months. It's a wonder I haven't gone into the grinder yet. I'm malfunctioning. I have a mind of my own. Maybe that is why I have not been trashed. The Maker would have replaced me by now. He has plans for me. He calls me by a name and not a number. That makes me special._

_Lately Gray has been asking me to do a lot of spying and scoping out on RED and BLU. Spying is not my job. That is the job of a Spy, but I cannot question. If I ask too many questions Gray will terminate me. I do not wish for that. I have spent hours just watching RED and BLU and returning with the information that is requested of me. Gray is up to something. I cannot tell if it is good or bad but I know he is planning something big._

_/log_1_  
_end_recording_

The robot stood back up, lowering his rifle scope. Through his blue optics he could see the RED fortress, though it was very small compared to when he had his scope raised. Registering his movement, the Heavybot behind him snapped from idle mode. Despite having worked for Gray Mann for two years, he still always had an escort when he was out scoping. Sometimes it was a Medibot. Sometimes a Heavybot. Usually it was a Heavybot unless he requested a Medibot. Being an old robot he needed plenty more repairs than usual.

The Heavybot led him back to the factory, and from there the Sniperbot was left to return to Gray on his own. Few bots wre permitted to go up to Gray's office. He had only seen Gray's personal Medibot and himself around the office. Any other common bot spoke to him through the intercom system installed.

The lift doors opened, and Gray welcomed him personal assistant back. "Ah, Makina, so nice to see you've returned from scouting," he said, coming up to greet the robot. Makina's lit eyes dimmed a bit as his light sensors retracted from the brightness of the room. No need to waste energy. "What information have you got for me?"  
_"Nothing special again, Maker. Today is ceasefire,_" Makina said. It was true, the mercenaries down in RED and BLU weren't very interesting outside of battle. Gray had walked to the other side of the room already.  
"What about the BLU Medic?" He asked. Makina would have been shocked if he was capable of being so. "Has he been doing anything?"  
"_Negative. He just does what every other Medic does. Play with bones and his cat. Unusual, doves would have been more ideal,_" Makina said. Without thinking, he blurted out his questions. "_Why, sir?_" Gray turned around to stare at him, though being a robot Makina lacked complicated feelings such as embarrassment and anticipation and simply stared back.  
Gray chuckled, and walked up to him, placing a hand on his cold shoulder. "You'll see soon. Go get some repairs and go scouting again. This time, look carefully at the BLU Medic and return to me when you are finished." Tasked with the odd job, Makina simply agreed and turned to leave, heading down to the repair station. He had a personal Medibot, which was nice. It meant he didn't have to wait in line for repairs like the rest of Gray's army did. As always, his personal Medibot was in his little office by the repair station playing with some nuts and bolts and what looked like a liver.

"_...Where did you get that, mate?_" Makina asked as the Medibot rolled away from the table with the liver-thing. It seemed to try and squirm away as soon as Medibot's attention was off it, and all the Medibot did was cover it with a bell jar to stop it from running away. Creepy.  
"Oh- nowhere. Just somezhing a Scoutbot came back vith and gave to me. Here for repairs?" The Medibot asked. Makina nodded and let the Medibot approach him and fiddle with his wires. The usual things, oiling, replacement of a few wires, polishing. In less than half an hour, Makina was ready to go again.  
"_'ppreciate it, mate,_" the Sniperbot said, tipping his hat to the Medibot before making his leave. As usual, his Heavybot escort was waiting for him at the front of the factory, where the larger bot would lead him out into the open for his scouting. The walk back to the usual spot where Makina always scouted out from was completely silent. Makina had nothing to say and neither did the Heavybot. Robots hardly engaged in communication unless necessary.

Makina got comfortable and in a position that would not drain was much power, before raising the scope of his rifle to his optic sensors again. What had Gray asked for again? That he look out for the BLU Medic? Was he supposed to shoot him? It took awhile for the crosshairs of the rifle to locate the BLU German, but after locking onto him, following him was easy. He was in his office, playing with his cat as usual. Unlike the RED Medic he didn't really take an interest in playing with spare limbs and organs every minute of his spare time, but spent it napping, playing with his cat or- were his hands glowing? Makina did a double take, or at least in his mind.

He kept his optics focused on the Medic, watching him closely as his hands glowed. He visibly sighed and sank into his seat, the light from his palms gradually dying away. Makina had never seen something like that. Humans didn't just make themselves glow. He'd only seen other robot eyes glow, and ubercharges were not considered glowing to him. This was important.

Gray had to know.


	2. Chapter 2

_Horst-Dieter Ahlbach. BLU Medic. 41 years old. Ex-military surgeon. Owns a cat named Schnaps. _

The doctor had been tired the whole day, even after an hour's nap. Work had been stressful lately, especially on the battlefield. RED clearly had been training. He had been the primary target on the field today- not that he was ever not the primary target. It was a silently understood rule that the Medic was always the most important class on the team, and thus should be priority target. He didn't think so. All team members were the same and played and important part.

He was lucky to have been given the time to be able to just rest on his chair in his office with no one to bother him and Schnaps, his adorable cat, who was lying across his lap. The office was completely silent except for the gentle purr of the cat, and his own soft breathing. He shifted himself in his seat, wincing a bit at the strain in his back. That was something he had to do something about.

He could have gotten up and over to the Medigun for a more effective remedy, but deciding it was way too stressful and he would disturb Schnaps, he went for the other option of self-healing. His hands glowed a beautiful pale blue and he sank deeper into his chair as the pain in his back faded away. Schnap's purring got louder as he idly placed a glowing hand on her back, gently combing his fingers through her fur. Chances to relax like this were rare and were greatly appreciated whenever they came by.

The ability, the Gift of the Vril, as he knew it, was truly something to be treasured. It had helped him escape death a few times before Mann Co. and had proven useful in a lot of situations. Having something so special meant it was best not to mention it to anyone else, so the fact that someone else knew was terrifying, though he was still unaware of the robot watching him from very far away.

For a moment he stared at the Team Captain hat that sat across his desk. There was never a proper place to put it. Sometmes he hung it with his coat, sometimes it sat in a cupboard, and sometimes it just sat there on his desk. How long had he had the hat? Reaching forward, he picked it up to take a good long look at it, just as someone outside knocked on his door. "Who is it?" He called behind him.

If it was someone annoying like Scout and didn't exactly need him, they could wait.

"Is Heavy, Doktor," a thick Russian accent floated through the door. Horst leaned back on his chair, putting the hat back on the desk. No need for Heavy to see him all nostalgic and stuff. He sighed.  
"Come in." The door creaked a bit as Heavy pushed it open and came in holding a plate with a few sandwiches on it. He knew how often Horst ate spicy instant soup and personally had nothing against it, though he thought it wasn't particularly good for him.  
"Heavy brough sandwiches. Doktor do not eat spicy instant soup tonight," Heavy said, placing the plate on the desk by the hat. Horst could only manage a smile as the notion. BLU was nice, he could agree that much, but it touched him that one of his teammates would take the extra time to make him dinner.  
"Danke, Herr Heavy," he said. Satisfied, Heavy turned for the door.  
"Heavy leave now. Good night, Doktor." Horst remained silent as the door closed, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. He reached forward for a sandwich, tearing off a small piece of ham and offering it to Schnaps before taking a bite. The sandwich was incredibly fresh and tasty, Horst noted as he doodled idly on a notepad while chewing. Tomorrow would be another long day of fighting, he mused. Better to eat something proper and be ready.

* * *

Makina lowered his scope once again. This was the third time he had been sent out to watch the BLU Medic, and why he still had not figured out. All throughout the night he had remained in idle mode, making mental audio logs of the possibilities and reasons Gray had him watching one particularly mercenary. Why the BLU Medic? What were his glowing blue hands about? Was that normal? Was it related to why Gray wanted him to look out for him? What was Gray's next move?

Makina had forgotten to plug himself into the charger that night, and in the morning, he had been left with less than 5% battery to drag himself to Medibot's office and charge himself. That had left most of his morning for thinking and making audio logs. Gray hadn't exactly been pleased and had asked why he was idle at night and hadn't shut down instead.

_"Was running a few updates. Forgot to shut down after that,"_ Makina lied. The best thing about being a robot was that there was no worry about looking guilty.

Gray dismissed it with a wave of his hand. Makina used all his self restraint to prevent himself from asking what he was going to be doing today. "Don't forget next time. Can't afford to waste daylight," Gray said, not exactly in a stern way, though Makina got the idea he was irritated. "Now, today spend some time watching the BLU Medic again during battle. This time, take particular note of what he does if he comes in contact with the RED Pyro. Report back to me once you are done," Gray ordered.

_log_6_  
_I can't say I'm not curious to know what Gray is planning. RED Pyro? Am I supposed to look out for how BLU Medic reacts to someone so dangerous, or is there a connection on a deeper level? To have been tasked with the same thing, only to return with the same results every time, is a curiousity. I hope Gray makes his next order soon._  
_/log_6_  
_end_recording_


	3. Chapter 3

_Axel Bigarsky. RED Pyro. 29 years old. Ex-pyrotechician for firework shows. Hates tacos._

There were just some things that shouldn't be known by anyone, things that shouldn't have to be revealed by any means. Axel's face wasn't something that absolutely had to be kept a secret, but he didn't like having to come face to face with other people where they could stare at him in the eye. The gask mask was for protection. His protection. Not just from the smoke his flamethrower created, but also from the eyes of his teammates.

Not friends, he wouldn't exactly call them friends. They were close, a bit like a family, but far too different and weird to be a family. Too uncomfortable to be friends. Just teammates. He lived by that rule to never get attached to anyone on the team. Getting attached meant watching them die on a daily basis would get hard. Which meant he would start to get worse at his job, then Admin would easily kill him. Not worth it. He always had the safety net of Respawn to catch him every time he got shot, punched, burned, pummelled, blasted or beaten to death, and the idea of not having it one time scared him.

Being the team's creepy firebug meant he had plenty of time to himself as he sat alone in his room with the door locked, the only time he could feel comfortable taking off his mask and asbestos lined suit and just lie down on his bed and play with fire that generated from his fingertips. He was lying stomach-up on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and his hands as he made small spurts of fire from it. His curtains were drawn closed, though the window facing outwards were left open to let in some wind.

And the wind that blew the curtains apart ever so slightly was enough for someone very far away to watch from.

* * *

_"Maker, I have found something very interesting," _Makina reported as soon as the doors of the lift to Gray's office. He wanted Gray to just give him his next assignment so he could try figure out what Gray was up to.

Gray was seated in his chair, facing out the window and staring into the bleak lands of Teufort. There really wasn't much around the area. He hummed, not turning to look at the Sniperbot. Makina took that as a signal to continue.

_"It seems the RED Pyro has a control of fire. Yesterday over the battle the BLU Medic did not come into contact with the RED Pyro so I did not report to you, but today the RED Pyro can generate fire from his hands. Is... is this normal?"_ Makina ended off his report with the question that had kept poking and bugging him in his mind. Gray smiled, turning around in the chair.

"No, Makina. It is not normal. That's why lately you've been asked to watch over both of them. Generating fire and healing through hands is not normal. Now that we've confirmed that both of them have something... special, here's our next course of action." Gray bent under the table and produced a Sydney Sleeper rifle, placing it on his desk.  
"This rifle here has been loaded with a special kind of ammunition. Inside is a dart, not a bullet, and in the darts are a little... anaesthetic. We tried equipping the darts with a cloaking device but it didn't work and the dart became too large, so you're just going to have to work harder," Gray said. Makina approached the rifle, picking it up. It felt nice, slender, and looked very tribal. He liked it.

_"What do I have to do, Maker?"_

Gray chuckled. "I thought you would have figured it out, but no worries. We're going to capture both of them and bring them back here." Makina noted he did not say why. "You will do that with this rifle and the darts inside it. Just shoot one of them and I'll have a Spybot take care of the other and bring them back here through a teleporter."

"_When do you want them by?"_ Makina asked, as he thought up an idea.

"As soon as you can, but make sure they're both together in battle before you shoot. Try get them as close to the teleporter which will be set up underwater in a corner on the left side of the RED base," Gray said, dismissing Makina with a wave. The robot remained silent, picking up the new rifle and leaving.

_log_6  
I am very close to finding freedom from this. I have realized that this task means I can possibly request help from the two mercenaries, but whether they will help me after they realize I'm the one who captured them is a whole different thing. I hope to be able to get this done soon.  
/log_6  
end_recording_

* * *

Teufort was one of the slightly more boring places to fight, but orders were orders, and no one defied orders given by Admin. Ms. Pauling, maybe, but only when they knew they could get away with it. But never Administrator. The battle was still just as violent with bullets, rockets, arrows, baseballs, grenades and insults were hurled across the battlefield to and fro.

Capture the Flag was always a very loud and violent game simply because both teams always wanted to know what was in the opposite team's briefcase, but never found out for some reason. The Scouts played a key role in Capture the Flag as they sprinted for each other's base, fighting, shooting and hitting each other whenever they passed or ran into an enemy. Makina noted all this with interest, scanning the battlefield closely for the RED Pyro and BLU Medic. Focus, he told himself.

He had found the RED Pyro chasing a burning Engineer with his Axtinguisher while trying to avoid the sentry gun, a bullet or two catching itself in his arm. Deciding that the Engineer would soon die from the burning, the Pyro retreated back out and called for his Medic as blood ran down his sleeve and dripped to the floor. He was pretty close to the BLU Medic, staying out of sight as his team's Medic healed him he was ready to go, the Pyro gave a thumbs up before parting with the Medic.

He ran back out, holding his flare gun at ready. Looking back, he noticed a few grenades roll his way and fired a flare behind him to ward off the Demoman if he was followed him. He turned the corner into the BLU base, whipping out his flamethrower for tight-spaced combat. Wandering carefully now, the Pyro made his way into the base. He heard the spin of a minigun, and retreated back out. There was no way he could take a Heavy on his own, let alone one that had just come out of Respawn with full was just stepping out of the base when a syringe stabbed the wood next to his face.

Yelping in surprise, the Pyro turned to face his attacker, hissing behind his mask as he saw the BLU Medic aiming his syringe gun at him. Out came his flare gun, and he fired once, twice, before switching to his Degreaser when he realized his flare gun wasn't doing him any good. Both of them locked in combat, flamethrower to syringe gun, when the former's flamethrower clicked empty. Just as nice. That left the arsonist with his Axtinguisher, leaping right for his enemy just as the Ubersaw came out.

Makina watched with heightened interest now, letting his scope settle on the scuffle. He noted each movement, every attack, every defend. The Medic had the Pyro in a headlock, and the Pyro had resorted to using his hands, grabbing onto the German's arm and letting fire form. He leapt back with a yelp, his arms glowing blue where Pyro had burned him. Snarling, he lashed out with his Ubersaw again, trying to get every attack in now that he had the rare chance against a Pyro with no flamethrower.

Makina's crosshairs were now directly on the Pyro, deciding to make it easier on the Spybot assisting him. As soon as the Pyro was down, the Spybot would go for the Medic. He lined up his sight, made sure the Pyro's neck was exposed enough, and fired. Axel felt something sharp pierce his neck, thinking it was the Medic, he reached up and yanked the needle out. As soon as he did so, everything felt numb. His hands, his legs, his whole body. He could hardly support himself. Stumbling, he collapsed to the floor, struggling to keep his eyes open as the drug in the dart did its work.

Horst had been pretty shocked to see the Pyro go down like that. Who else was that? Sniper? His guard was suddenly up, realizing it could have been someone else. He was sure to dodge out of sight from the direction the dart had come from, but left himself exposed to the Spybot that uncloaked behind him and did the exact same thing that had happened to the Pyro.

The Spybot let the drug do its work and released Horst, letting him slump to the floor next to the Pyro. _"I have both of them. Preparing for extraction,"_ it said into its earpiece. A mumbled, static-filled reply came, and it grabbed both of them, jumping into the water and dragging them over to the teleporter waiting for them as fast as it could before its cloaking device shorted out.

Makina kept watching till the Spybot disappeared from sight through the teleporter and the Engineerbot who had built it destroyed it remotely to prevent anyone else from following. He turned to return to Gray, eagerly awaiting his next move with his two captives.


	4. Chapter 4

Everything was spinning.

Everything was spinning.

Everything was spinning, and blurry, and everything screamed and hurt and wailed.

Then slowly it blurred away and faded, melting away into nothing but a throb as Axel cracked open his eyes to blurry lights overhead and soft voice surrounding him. He could barely make out a few really unclear shapes at the corner of his vision, shifting a bit as he groaned.

"Ah, hello, you are awake," one of the figures said, coming closer. Axel squinted, his eyes still too sensitive to the light. He shifted himself, realizing he couldn't move much. He tugged at his restraints, confused.

"They're not going to come off, Mr Bigarsky." How did this guy know who he was? He looked down at the restraints, straps keeping him to a chair that leaned back a bit. They were incredibly strong. "So since you're here, might as well get comfortable." Axel snorted at the joke. Comfortable? Right.

The old man before him bent down to take a good long look at him. What was so interesting? Suddenly, he realized his vision wasn't darker like it was when he had his mask on. Shit, where was it? "Who the hell are you?" he spat, looking around wildly for his mask. "Where's my mask?"

The old man glanced at the robot Medic somewhere behind him, just standing there idly. "I figured you can't speak properly with it on. Plus, you got some really nice features going on down here. Why all the secrecy? Pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Gray Mann." He walked past him, spinning the chair around as well to face the opposite end of the room, where through a glass wall, Axel saw the same BLU Medic he remembered fighting with locked into a smiliar chair with his head drooping and his eyes closed. The only reassurance that he was not dead was the steady rise and fall of his chest.

"See him? You two, have something in common," Gray said, pointing to the still out-cold Medic. Axel shot him a look.

"Really now?" he scoffed, "and what is it that we have in common, apart from our mutual hate for each other?" He couldn't help but glance over again.

"An ability. Of magic. Not the same kind of magic, but I understand that you can create fire from your hands. He, can heal without the use of Medigun and Australium technology," Gray explained, making Axel's eyes light up, but not with excitement.

He narrowed his eyes at Gray. If this old man knew about something he was pretty sure only the mercenaries down in Teufort partially knew about, what else did this guy know? Grey chuckled at his lack of words. "Nothing to say, hmm?" He rounded the chair, before hading towards the door again. "I'll be back in a few hours to check on your friend over there. Just know that you're both under heavy surveillance, and one wrong move and I'll just come in and deal with you. See you later, Mr. Bigarsky," he said, the Medibot following him out before the door shut heavily and locked.

Axel looked up, scanning the room. There were no visible cameras around, but he was pretty sure he was, like Gray had said, under heavy surveillance. There was absolutely nothing to do now except wait for Gray to return, or for that BLU Medic to wake up.

He hated being restrained. It was uncomfortable and made him feel incredibly irritated and nervous. He tried to melt his restraints with his hands, but whatever material the chair was made of was clearly fireproof after a few failed attempts at burning it.

Every minute felt like an hour of staring around at the same things. There was only so much. Himself, his restraints, the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the door and that BLU Medic across the room. There was nothing else to do except close his eyes and hopefully take a nap.

...

Gray had immediately returned to his office after the talk with one of the captives, and was met with Makina waiting for him. _"How was it, Maker?" _The robot asked.

"Rather interesting. The RED Pyro has some very nice features for someone who goes around burning people on a daily basis. You did well," he said, sitting down at his desk to write down some notes on a piece of paper.

Makina waited in silence for any further orders, and when none were given, he made his way back to the lift. It was tempting to ask to follow him the next time he went back to the two captives, but he knew Gray would ask if he requested. Maybe later, so it would not be so suspicious. With nothing left to do, he returned to his personal Medibot's office.

Again he had caught the bot playing with the squirming liver, this time trying to keep it from wriggling away under his sleek, metal grip. "_If- you vould just-"_ He grabbed it just before it fell off the table. Makina stood there, wondering what the Medibot had put in the liver thing to make it act like that. The robot quickly grabbed it and tossed it into a wire mesh cage before turning his attention to Makina.

_"Repairs again, Herr Makina?" _He asked, rolling up to him. He was the only other bot who actually communicated with him in a logical, human way. Every other bot in the factory just answered like it was programmed to. Makina's eyes dimmed as he walked in, closing the door behind him.

_"Not now, Medibot- can I call you something else?" _Makina asked, deciding if he were to enlist the help of someone else he knew and trusted, he did not want to call him a bot. The Medibot looked as surprised as a robot could get.

_"Vhy? I have never had a name like you, Makina. I should zhink you are zhe first to have a name," _the bot said, rolling back to the table where he proceeded to pick up a stick and prod at the squirming thing in its wire mesh cage.

Makina did a shrug, something he had learnt to do over time of watching human mercenaries do it. _"I don't know. I guess you'll be the second," _he said. That left the Medibot to think of a name he was comfortable with being called. Already being called just 'Medibot' was better than being called by his serial, 'MED58/201', just like how Makina was better than just SNP42/126.

_"I guess you can just call me 'Doctor'. Names aren't my zhing," _the Medibot said, tossing a cloth over the mesh cage so no one would see his weird little experiment.

Makina nodded in acceptance. At least that was a title and somewhat a name. _"Okay, I can live with that. Have you seen the two captives, Doctor?" _Makina asked, quickly adjusting to the new name. It sounded nice, to address someone he was familiar with by a name.

_"Zhem? Not yet. Good job on getting zhem, by zhe vay,"_ the medibot. Makina did the shrug again and sat down on a chair at the side of the room, watching the bot fiddle with things at his desk while Makina made audio logs he would later share

...

Axel watched with mild interest as the medic across him slowly woke, blurry-eyed and confused, just as he had been. It had been a little over two hours since he had talked with Gray, and he could only assume Gray would return now that the other captive was up.

He remained silent at he watched the BLU Medic react like how one tied to a chair naturally would. He was confused, the surprised, then angry. And of course, who else to blame but the one wearing enemy colours opposite him?

"Verdammt... you did zhis, didn't you?" He snarled across. Axel rolled his eyes, but couldn't blame him. When he was angry and confused he blamed the first thing possible too.

"If I did this, I wouldn't have tied myself to a chair too, Nazi," he snapped back. It took a minute for the blue eyes of his enemy to notice three things. One, his eyes were orange, two, he wore a Pyro suit and three, there was no mask.

There was no mask.

There was no mask, and behind it was a man who looked like any ordinary human, except for the eye colour.

It had come as a shock, in all honesty, to see a Pyro, in the flesh, maskless. And orange eyes! That wasn't something you saw everyday. "Something interest you?" Axel asked, narrowing his eyes. "Oh right... you've never seen a Pyro without his mask." Typical. "Well, if we're gonna break out of here, might as well get to know you. Name's Axel Bigarsky, RED Pyro. You already know that."

"Horst-Dieter Ahlbach, BLU Medic. You ah, have... orange eyes?" Horst asked. Orange eyes were definitely unnatural. Axel nodded.

"Contacts," he explained. Ah, that was it. "So, we gonna bust outta here?" Busting out sounded like a great idea, but the first step to getting out was getting to know the enemy.


	5. Chapter 5

_Reliable Excavation and Demolitions, otherwise known as RED. A team of nine independent individuals working for Redmond Mann, each with their own specialization in weaponry and firearms and armed with a set of skills higher than anyone else in their field. Highly dangerous. They are not to leave Mann Co. regions unless given permission and are not to bring any weapon with them outside of Mann Co.'s boundaries._

That was the official definition of who RED was. The same went for BLU, with minor edits to the name and who they worked for. All this didn't really matter anyway, since they were all under the chain-smoking, iron fist of the Administrator.

She was in her smoke-filled office, as usual, watching the mny screens before her that showed live video feed of what the mercenaries were doing. Boring, boring, boring. Nothing on those screens were ever interesting outside of battle. Even during battle, the same moves were pulled, every single time.

The last battle, however, had been interesting. She had clearly seen what happened with the Pyro and Medic, and was genuinely surprised that Gray had launched an attack and on only two of them.

When Ms Pauling had come in asking if she wanted her to send the mercenaries to fight Gray, all she had done was chuckle. "They can handle themselves. I want to watch their teammates react to the situation. Leave them be, Pauling," she said.

"But, Admin, they could be in real danger and-"

"I said," Admin snarled, turning around to glare at Ms Pauling, "Leave them be." Ms Pauling was the only person, apart from Soldier and his ignorance, who could take Admin's killer stare without shying away. She nodded, before quickly disappearing out of the room with her clipboard in hand.

Left to herself again, Admin turned her chair back to the screens. None of the mercenaries had noticed their teammate's disappearance yet. Of course. No one wanted business with the creepy German doctor who had a fondness for blood and weird experimentation, and the mumbling demon spawn who took delight in setting people and things on fire.

Of course, no one else knew better who they really were.

...

"Guys? Anyone seen the Doc?" That question had been asked many times, and all by the same person. The BLU Scout usually didn't quite care for where the Medic went or what he did, but he was always out at 5 to get his cat food. It was already 6.32 in the evening, and still no Medic.

"Yo Truckie," he said, poking the Engineer in the arm. The Texan looked up from his blueprints, already knowing what Scout was going to ask.

"Sorry boy, but Ah ain't seen the Doc lately. Go check his office or something, he's probably takin' a nap," he said. Enter his office? What if Medic was really there, and decided to slice him up for entering his office without permission?

"Uh... yeah, I'll- I'll go do that. Thanks Truckie!" Scout said, leaping away in to the shadowy hallway. BLU hardly ever turned on their base lights unless absolutely necessary.

He stopped in front of the double doors at the end of the corridor with the huge blue cross painted on it. That door always scared him, and what lay behind the door scared him even more. He raised his hand and knocked, once, twice, but no reply came.

He knocked again. "Doc?" He called, deciding it was worth the risk to push open the door and step inside. The infirmary was completely quiet, everything was just there, quietly.

Something soft touched his feet, and his looked down to see Medic's cat by his legs, her tail brushing against his leg. "_Prrrow?" _Scout had no idea what the cat wanted, till she wandered over to her food bowl and sat by it.

"Oh uh, Medic hasn't fed you. I don't get what you normally eat and I won't give you any milk I own since it'll drive you mad..." He then remembered the Holy Mackerel. Cats ate fish, right? "I'll be right back."

Scout turned and sped out of the door, leaving Schnaps sitting there, confused. He went back to the fridge and pulled out his Holy Mackerel, slamming it on the table a few times to soften it up after sitting in the fridge for so long.

Engineer caught Scout hitting the fish on the table. "Boy, the hell are you slapping a fish on the counter for?" He asked. Deciding it was defrosted enough, Scout made a run back to the infirmary.

"No time Truckie!" Scout called back as he disappeared again. Schnaps greeted him with another loud meow as he tossed the fish into her bowl. It was still a bit cold, but Schnaps was hungry and accepted it with small nibbles.

"So like," Scout said, plopping himself into Medic's chair at the cluttered desk, "where is he? You seen Medic, cat?" He didn't expect any reply from Schnaps, cats wouldn't have known better. When was the last time Medic had been seen? He remembered seeing him in Respawn before the battle, and once or twice during the game, but not after. So it was easy to come to a conclusion that something had happened during the battle and he was probably still somewhere out there.

"You uh, you stay here and eat the fish, kay cat?" Scout said, getting off the chair and back to the door. "I'm gonna go look for Medic."

Taking nothing but his bat with him, Scout left the base again. Engineer had looked up when he left, but said nothing. Less questions, easier to go.

The evening Teufort breeze was there like always, but the air hung with mystery still as Scout wandered around, checking corners, the sewers, the water, anywhere, for their Medic. What if the other team captured him and were just waiting for them to realize it? What if they were using him as a bargaining chip, to force the BLUs to hand over the intelligence?

RED wasn't that smart, right? They were just mindless, brutal grunts trying to get that them in every way possible.

Who knew that there was one other person thinking the exact same thing about BLU as he searched his own base for their Pyro?

...

Gray had returned once to speak with both of them, though he had not received anything but grunts and snorts and the occasional scarcastic remark from his two captives. "You both aren't very cooperative, now are you?" Gray asked, narrowing his eyes at them. When neither of them replied, he sighed. "I suppose I'll just leave my P.A. here until you two decide to say something. Of course, if it takes too long then I'll just stop asking questions and get on with what I'm supposed to be doing. You'll have to wait still, since we're currently trying to configure everything so nothing screws up. See you later," the old man said, turning to take his leave. Just as he exited the door with his personal Medibot waiting outside for him, he turned back to the Sniperbot standing at the corner of the room with another Medibot. "Makina, stay here and make sure they don't try anything funny," he warned. Makina nodded, and Gray left.

Makina stared at the two captives, before walking closer to them. Horst was clearly slightly put off by the movement, but said nothing. Makina noted the way their eyes moved, from his lit optical sensors to his plated body to the personal Medibot behind him.

"_Gray says you have something in common with each other that is very special," _Makina said. Axel turned his head back to share a look with Horst. "_Something he wants. Perhaps you two might know?_"

The silence remained. "_Medic, I understand you can make your hands glow. Why I cannot say, but I know you can do it._" If he wasn't going to get any answers, he was going to provoke answers from them. Upon saying the words, he noticed the Medic's eyes flare. If Makina could smirk, he would have.

"How do you know?" Horst asked, his voice dropping to a low growl. Everything he had done was in full privacy. On the battlefield it was never obvious since his hands were permanently on the Medigun. How had he been spied on and not know it? How _long _had he been spied on for?

"_Gray has his ways. I have something to request of both of you,_" Makina said, gaining some interest from the both of them. "_I want you two to help me escape. And in return I will help you as well."_

Axel raised an eyebrow. "You? Escape? What for? You work for that Gray person and you're a robot. There isn't many places for you to go out there in Mann Co territory without getting shot."

Everyone in the room knew Axel was right, even if no on dared to say it. After the... smoking, bullet-ridden history with Gray Mann and his robot army's attacks, it was hard to just trust a robot, especially one that was Gray's personal assistant.

"How can ve trust you?" Horst asked. Axel nodded in agreement, and Makina beckoned for the Medibot to come forward.

_"Ah, you see, Herr Makina here is vhat ve vould normally know as ah, malfunctioning. Most bots just shoot upon enemy sight, but Herr Makina here has a mind of his own. Ve don't really know vhy or how, but he's a good robot. He zhinks for himself and questions zhings. I do the same too, being a Medibot and having a bit more intelligence programmed into me zhan a typical Scoutbot, but not as much as Herr Makina here," _the Medibot explained. It didn't really answer how the two mercenaries could trust them, but it was still interesting to know. _"Normally Gray trashes malfuctioning robots, but Herr Makina here clearly has something a bit more... special, you could say."_

The door opened again, two Heavybots standing there. _"The Maker has assigned us here. You two are to leave," _they said in unison. Makina and the Medibot shared a look, before turning to leave. They would need to talk before trying to get the two mercenaries on their side.

_"My office, now," _the Medibot said, following Makina back to his personal workspace. There would have to be lots of planning for the worst if they were really going to have a shot at finding freedom.


	6. Chapter 6

_"It vould be unvise to simply valk in zhere and set zhem free," _Medibot said, idly poking at the covered cage. They had been sitting in the office for well over an hour now, formulating plans and coming up with escape routes of the building using the maps of the building several Scoutbots had left at the door as a joke.

Makina nodded. _"I agree, Doctor. There's isn't exactly another way to go about this since we can't just kill everyone and walk out. I suppose we can try to wait a bit, maybe a couple of days before we try getting them out?"_

Medibot nodded, and both of them lapsed into yet another awkward silence. There was a soft whine from outside where things were always active, but the both of them stared at each other in stony silence. Communication was clearly not their thing.

_"I'm going to see if I can take shift again," _Makina finally said, getting off the seat. His gears creaked as he did so, a sign of his age. Medibot stared after him for a bit, before deciding it was okay for him to follow.

A couple of other bots stared at them as they passed. They were always a curious pair, Sniper and Medic. The dumb bots never understood why they were paired together. They were uninformed of their intelligence and saw everything in a battle's point of perspective. Why a Sniper and a Medic? Snipers didn't need healing. Why not a Soldier or a Demobot or a Heavy?

The two Heavybots were there at the door again as usual, staring ahead with their blank optics as the pair approached. Oe of them turned its head to stare at them, before demanding their business in its metallic, growling, voice.

_"Ve're here to see the two humans. I have full permission to access the room under orders of The Maker. The Medibot will follow me," _Makina said. It was always easy to use 'The Maker' as an excuse for anything. The unintelligent Heavybots wouldn't know better.

They stepped aside, allowing the two of them to enter, even if their lit optics bore into their cold, metal backs as they closed the door behind them. They weren't expecting anything other than a grunt of acknowledgement of their presence from the two captives.

As usual, Medibot took his silent position behind Makina, still unconfident of himself and his position to speak. It was best to let someone who knew what he was doing do the talking.

A few glances were exchanged round the room, from Horst to Axel to Makina and back to Horst. From the way they looked fairly beat up, it was clear Gray Mann had let some Scoutbots have a little fun with them. Makina swung his head back to Medibot.

_"Go get something to clean them up,"_ he ordered. He was hardly ever in a position of power, and hoped he didn't sound too demanding to his friend. The Medibot nodded and exited the room, his single wheel leaving no trace on the floor.

_"So, have you considered my offer?" _Makina asked, hoping to break the silence and maybe get an answer. _"I know that you know I can help you. You're just a bit... reluctant, to get help from a robot who works for Gray Mann."_

Admittedly, what he said was true. Of course, a man's ego wouldn't let him admit it. Makina noted the silence that once again filled the room, and the way both of them refused to look at him. Medibot had returned by then, and placed his things on a table. The bot approached Horst first, causing the man to shy away.

_"He's not trying to torture you, Medic," _Makina said, watching with interest as he let the bot clean the thin cuts and ease the bruises with a cloth soaked in cold water. _"Have either of you even thought about my offer?"_

"We have, we talked about it for a bit," Axel said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "right before two Scouts came in and beat us around for a bit."

_"And what did you two discuss about?"_

"We were... keen, on the idea of getting out, of course. We would definitely love to know how we can trust you first." The Pyro hissed in pain as Medibot cleaned the cut on his lip.

Makina remained silent for a bit, thinking about all the ways he could convince both of them to get on his side. It was all perfectly sensible that they would first consider if he was really trying to help them or not before agreeing to something. "I don't know how I can prove myself to you since you don't know me. All I have are my words, and the words of my friend."

Whatever he had said seemed to really invoke thoughts in both of them as they considered taking up the offer. What else did they have to lose, other than their life? They glanced across the room at each other, a mutual agreement shared through their eyes.

"Okay, ve'll help you if you help us," Horst agreed. He still didn't look entirely convinced, but Makina was willing to take what he could get.

_"If that is so, we will get you out by tonight."_

_"Tonight? Herr Makina, I don't mean to disrespect but it may be risky if we-"_

Makina turned around to face his friend. _"Trust me on this. Tonight. The sooner we get this done the sooner we're out of here."_

The Medibot looked away, but nodded. With nothing left to say, the two robots left the mercenaries, automatically returning to the office. Now with much less time to work out a plan, they would have to really think things through.

...

"Zhat vas... interesting," Horst said, his eyes drifting around the room idly. Even though they had been told they would be gotten out, it was always better to take things with a hint of doubt in case plans failed.

Two bots had returned to the room to watch over them so they didn't try anything stupid, though being locked down to a chair wouldn't allow them to do much. Both of them knew that while there where other bots in the room, it was unwise to speak, so Horst's comment was replied to with silence.

Axel wished there was a clock, so they could count down the hours before Makina and the Medibot would supposedly come for them.


	7. Chapter 7

_"I hope you are ready for zhis, Herr Makina."_

_"I hope I'm ready for this. But this is our only chance so we have to take it."_

_"But it is incredibly risky and vhat if-"_

_"No more what ifs. Take your bonesaw and let's get out of here."_

It was past midnight at the factory, a time where Gray had gone to sleep or something and most other bots shut down for the night, leaving only themselves and the night shift guards. The door to the imprisonment chamber was still guarded, of course. Makina and Medibot could enter, but the difficult was getting them out. They would have to beat the crap out of the bots.

They had geared up with weapons, Medibot taking a bonesaw and a few scalpels for throwing, and Makina taking his sniper rifle, newly-sharpened kukri and a tazer he had snagged from one of the upper floors. It would come in handy, the tazer. Good way to shut down robots quickly by frying their systems.

Sharing a quick glance, they left the office, leaving as little trace of what they were about to do as they could. Whatever papers they had scribbled on had been burnt on their request from a passing Pyrobot who very gladly did so for them. They were eyed with suspicion as they entered the room with their weapons, but the two Heavybots guarding the door let them in anyway, assuming the weapons were meant to torture and intimidate the captives. Once the door was shut, they got to work.

"So you're really getting us out," Axel said, as Makina began to search the room for a device that would unlock their restraints.

_"Yes, what does it look like, Pyro?" _Makina snorted in return, finding a switch. He flicked it, but nothing changed in the room. Dammit. The controls were probably up in Gray's office, which meant he'd had to go up, or get someone to go up and do it for him. _"Stay here," _he said, making for the door again.

Medibot rolled up to him, surprised that he was leaving. _"Vait, vhere are you going?" _

_"Upstairs. I'm going to find the control to set them free. Stay here." _Without another word, he left the room, taking only the tazer and the kukri. The sniper rifle was left with Medibot. _In case you or they need it, _he had said.

The Heavybots ignored him as he left and didn't enter the room, allowing him to make his way to the lift that led up to Gray's office with ease. Less questions asked were better, in his opinion. He called for the lift and authenticated himself by scanning the microchip implanted within his fingertip. He was one of the few to have that, and thus was one of the few who could access Gray's office. The ride up was quick, and he got to work of searching for the switch in the office.

At first he tried flipping every switch he found, but realized it was too bothersome to test everything and find out what switch did what, so he quickly switched to plan B: smashing every switch in the office and hoping that one of them deactivated the locks downstairs.

He raised his knife and smashed it into the switches along the wall, shutting off lights and air-conditioners. He was unaware that this sent a message to the Mecha-Engineers to come up and fix the lights, and kept breaking things.

At the same time he searched along the tables for any information on Gray's future plans, pushing aside papers on the table and opening drawers. In the third unlocked drawer he opened, he found a pistol and decided to take it anyway in case something happened. It was then the lift pinged and Makina dove under the table.

Two Mecha-Engineers came out of the lift and wandered over to the light switches, analysing the issue at hand. _"Looks like some bozo shoved a knife through it," _the first bot said, brushing his fingertips along the broken switch panel. The second one nodded.

_"Don't know what idiot would do this. The Maker doesn't throw knives at walls randomly. He isn't even here."_

_"Someone else did this. I can feel it. Let's just get this fixed and find who-" _His sentenced didn't even finish as Makina rammed the active tazer into the Mecha-Engineer's back, frying his sockets from the inside. As soon as the bot fell in a smoking heap, he raised the pistol and fired twice at the other bot, kicking him in the head and dropping him to the floor. He grabbed the bot off the floor and stared at his dimming optic sensors.

_"Where's the switch that deactivates the holding cell downstairs?" _Makina demanded. When he got no reply, he threw the bot back down and stood up, continuing his search round the room. He wandered from the main office to the smaller rooms that branched out, continuing his switch-smashing spree. Unknowingly, he broke the right switch along the way but it made no sound, silently activating the cameras in the room to identify who had deactivated the locks, before alerting the bots downstairs.

...

Medibot had stayed in the room with the two captives, silently staring into space and answering any questions they had for him.

"So, how long have you been zhat Sniper's personal Medic?" Horst asked, just to break the silence.

_"Vell, ve have only really known each ozher for a month or two now, but I've been vorking vith him for almost sev-" _The locks on the two mercenaries suddenly opened, allowing them to get up. Instantly the Medibot was on alert mode. He shoved the rifle into Axel's hands and tossed the bonesaw to Horst. _"I hope you know how to fight. Let's get out of here."_

The door opened and the two Heavybots were there, shotguns raised, but Axel, despite fumbling with the rifle, managed to put a bullet through the head of one of them while Horst leapt on top of the other, the screeching sound of a bonesaw cutting through metal ringing out.

"Where's a bloody can of hairspray and a lighter when you need one?" Axel hissed.

_"Forget zhat, ve can pick up veapons along zhe vay," _Medibot urged, rushing out of the hallway as fast as possible. They were certainly met with resistance, but it also allowed them to grab new weapons quickly, and very soon all three of them had shotguns and a grenade launcher.

"I hope someone know how to use this thing," Axel said, turning over the grenade launcher in his hand. They also only had limited ammunition, so every shot had to count.

A good lot of bots came storming into the room, weapons at ready and pointed at them. Several inaccurate shots fired, and Axel fumbled with the grenade launcher. He pulled down what was probably the trigger and launched a grenade into the crowd of robots, the grenade exploding on impact and sending small chunks of metal flying across the room in a large spray.

The three of them raised their arms to shield themselves from the metal shards, before quickly resuming their battle through the factory. The building had not gone into lockdown, not just yet. Only Gray could lockdown the building and it would only activate if he was out of the building, which meant he was still inside.

Once they had cleared the hallway, it was an empty stretch to run, which was both a relief and fairly intimidating as all sorts of traps could have been installed in the walls.

"Vait," Horst said, holding Axel and the Medibot back. He took off his coat and tossed it down the hallway, triggering a motion sensor that activated a sentry to fire at it. "Hidden sentries, triggered by motion," he huffed. Axel frowned. How were they going to get past the hall if there were motion sensors all over the damn place?

"Wait, if they're sentries and track motion, what happens if we roll a grenade in there and they shoot it up?" Axel grinned, lifting the grenade launcher. Horst shrugged. "Go for it."

The Pyro fired a grenade down the hallway, catching the attention of the hidden sentries. One of them beeped and fired, blowing up the grenade. It didn't catch any of the sentries, it was to far from them. "Dammit, how do you aim this thing?" Axel hissed, taking another shot. That meant there were only three grenades left in the launcher. The grenade rolled closer to the wall where the sentry presumably was, and when it was shot at, the sentry blew up, along with what was probably the motion sensor.

"Wait, I think something other than the sentry blew up," Axel said. No one went to check, till the Medibot rolled ahead.

"Vait! Vhat if zhe sentry is still active?" Horst called, pulling the Medibot back. He shook off Horst.

_"If it is still active, zhen at least neither of you vill be hurt. I can be destroyed, I don't feel pain, Herr Doktor," _he said, rolling ahead. He paused for a moment right before the hallway, before rolling on right through the hallway. The second sentry was still active but didn't pick up the Medibot rolling by, and he turned back. _"Come on, it's safe."_

The two mercenaries took off at a run past the hallway, Axel almost flinching as he passed the sentry which thankfully ignored them.

_"It's just through the main lobby and we're out," _the bot said, grabbing them and rolling off. Out in the lobby milled more bots, which posed a problem. But no problem couldn't be solved with a gun.

...

Back up in the office, Makina was fending himself off from more of Gray's bot army that had been summoned automatically. He was doing quite okay, until the storm of Demobots came in with their scimitars and swords.

_"Bloody hell,"_ Makina hissed, grabbing the body of the Mecha-Engineer he had tazed and flinging it at the Demobots. They were gaining on him, one of them flipping him over onto his back. For a moment his vision flickered when he hit the ground, but he scrambled back onto his feet almost instantly and threw the office chair at them.

There were at least twenty of them in the office already, and he couldn't take them all down, even with the tazer. He made for the sprinkler, and idea popping into his mind. Like he had done with all the other buttons and switches in the room, he smashed his knife into the fire control panel, activating the sprinklers in the room. Water showered over all the bots in the room, including himself, but they were made to be waterproof so it didn't do much.

But that was not the extent of his plan. He activated the tazer and jammed it into one of the Demobots, the water sprayed over it helping to bring the current to as many bots as it could. The only con to the plan was that he also shocked himself.

He let out a metallic shriek and let go of the tazer, his vision slowly filling with static. Not all the bots had been affected and were still gaining on him, so he turned to the glass window. He ran to it, staring down. It was a good fifteen floor drop, but there was a tree around the eight floor. Maybe if he caught onto the tree he could break his fall.

More static was filling his mind and vision, and he flung himself out of the glass window, smashing the pane. He was sure to push himself as far out as possible to catch onto the tree, an sure enough crashed into the top branches of it. It broke his fall by a lot, especially since the tree was really thick and had plenty of leaves to cushion his fall. He fell down a few more branches before grabbing on properly. He was probably five floors off the ground now, enough for him to scale down himself.

...

Horst, Axel and the Medibot had made it outside with minimal injuries and no ammo, but as soon as they were out of the building they kept running.

_"Zhis vay!" _the Medibot called, taking a sharp left further into the maze of buildings. He didn't actually know where he was going, he was just following his internal navigating system to find Makina. They could still hear the bots following them and he pulled them into an dark garage, Axel rolling down the garage shutters before they all crouched behind something at the back of the garage in case the robot army came in.

They stayed silent for a good ten minutes, till Horst got up. "Let's find a light switch. I can't bloody see anyzhing in zhis darkness," he growled.

They felt around the garage, attempting to find a light switch, till finally it came on. The Medibot started randomly beeping, grabbing the attention of the two men. "What's with the beeping?" Axel asked.

_"Uh, vell, I run on a battery, and I haven't been charged since two days ago and today drained a lot of power," _he explained. _"I vill have to be charged in zhe next 24 hours or I vill shut down. Same goes for Herr Makina, but he charges every night so he should be good for another three days."_

"Right, about him. We still have to go out and find him," Axel said, sitting down on the garage floor, not caring how dusty it was.

"I zhink it vill be good if ve can charge zhe Medibot here first. Zhere's definitely got to be somezhing ve can charge him vith," Horst said. If they found maybe a power generator they could hook Medibot up to it any maybe charge him a bit before going to find Makina. After all, he did say Makina's battery was probably good for three days, so he could probably survive three days on his own.

But before they could look for a power source, the Medibot was already rolling back up the garage shutter. _"Ve can charge me later. Zhere are still bots hunting down Herr Makina," _he said, disappearing out the garage with a shotgun. Axel and Horst shared a look, but had no choice but to follow. The robots were the only ones who knew how to get back to Teufort from wherever the hell they were.


End file.
